After it came to light that Pat McAfee was recommended to wear a bulletproof vest during his appearances on ESPN College GameDay after the controversial Utah episode, the former NFL punter clarified things.

He took to X, formerly Twitter, to deliver a lengthy response to the recent controversies. McAfee posted several death threats he recently received in his DMs, and while many advise him not to read them, it's hard because “they still exist.” The messages, along with media coverage that tears him down, have an impact on him.

“So I do get a bit f**ked up when a couple days after The New York Times releases a ‘WE ARE ALLOWED AND SHOULD HATE THIS GUY' piece, a University puts a video out from their own page, indicating ‘we think he's a corny creep here,'” he wrote. “It's a weird time. The things that get said about what my daughter and son and wife deserve are all rather wild as well.”

McAfee explained that there has “been some misreporting” in articles, though some are “in the ballpark” of accuracy. Last year's College GameDay episode in Tennessee saw extreme security measures be taken.

He clarified that the FBI might not have been the ones to suggest he wear a bulletproof vest, but it was suggested “by one of the security groups.”

“We had no idea what to expect,” he continued. “Nobody had been in that type of situation before. Everybody wanted the best for everybody. I never felt safer and never felt more appreciative of the people that were around me that morning[,] including the students that came out and did WAY more than they could've ever imagined for my soul.”

Still, the ex-NFL punter doesn't know how things reached this point. He has realized that any “mistake, misstep, or misquote” causes a “frenzy” where people want him “eliminated,” or, as he believes some say it, “Kirked,” referring to Charlie Kirk, who was killed at a college campus in Utah.

He knows that he isn't “perfect,” and he's “trying my best in real time.” McAfee is working on improving himself, and his mission remains the same: to “unify.”

“I love sports because it’s unifying. That’s all I’m ever trying to be… actually,” McAfee wrote at the end of his post.

The College GameDay in Utah was controversial. During his live show after the GameDay episode, he vented about his frustrations with the University of Utah, from the students trash-talking him to the student in his kicking contest being dissatisfied with the $1 million prize. During his response, he seemingly alluded to Kirk's assassination, garnering further controversy.

“I thought to myself, Has anything really scary happened at, like, a college gathering in the state of Utah recently?” McAfee asked on his show. “Do you think we should be amplifying reasons for why people hate my guts at a university? I don't know. So it was just a lot of mixed feelings for me going out there. Then the kicker goes, ‘Only one million dollars?’ Only one million dollars? It’s like, alright, I hate this place. They have a good football team, though.”

McAfee and the rest of the College GameDay crew will next visit the University of Indiana. It remains to be seen how he is received there.